Aetas Triumphi
by FivebyFive89
Summary: The (mis)adventure of three unlikely friends. A one shot based around my own Destiny fireteam inspired by the nostalgia of Age of Triumph and the fond memories courtesy of this game! Made for my friends and myself, not meant to accurately reflect Destiny lore.
1. Cosmodrome shenanigans

**A/N: In honour of that glorious time the nightfall modifiers aligned to make it possible to instakill the tank with a melee in the Taniks strike ;) This is also an homage to ma squad. Destiny brought us together and will always be special to me for that reason.**

The Cosmodrome was still and quiet. A desolate wasteland filled with mud and ice and rusting mechanical corpses. Derelict concrete buildings and ancient vehicles of flight and space travel rotted amongst the snow. What had once been a bustling hub of activity, humanity's pathway to the stars, was now a graveyard. The ruins of Old Russia and the Golden Age, picked over by Fallen scavengers. The sky above was clear and blue, the sun bright but doing nothing to warm the frozen ground below. Had they not been wearing helmets the three Guardians' breath would have appeared as clouds of white before them in the frigid air. Well. Kay's at least. The other two were Exo and so had no breath to expel being humanoid machines.

"Snow crunches underfoot as the three brave warriors of Light make their way unseen, unheard, through the graveyard of humanity," Kay spoke in a low whisper, "Ever alert, ever watchful, scanning the horizon for-"

"Will you shut up?" Major's voice hissed in her ear over the comm link between their helmets.

"I'm just trying to set the scene!" Kay whined in response.

"I was kinda enjoying it." Mal, the titan, told his hunter companions. Major tipped her head in his direction, probably rolling her eyes. Behind the tinted visor of her helmet the potential movement was lost.

"And if the Fallen are scanning for radio chatter?" She asked pointedly. Mal didn't reply, turning his head to scan their surroundings as though he hadn't heard. Kay cleared her throat awkwardly.

"I, ah…Didn't think of that." She admitted. "But, they're not that smart…are they?"

As if in answer an inhuman shriek echoed across the Cosmodrome. Fallen shouting in either rage or triumph. It was hard to tell, all communications sounded the same between the aliens and, to be honest, the Guardians had never stopped to study them that closely.

"Scans indicate no life forms in this vicinity." Came the robotic voice of Major's ghost, hovering just over her shoulder. Sunlight glinted from its rose-tinted casing and the central sphere glowed blue, whirring faintly as it searched for hostiles.

"Sound is weird here." Kay murmured.

"Stay alert." Major said. "Cayde's scouts suggested the Fallen might be based in this area considering the amount of scavenging parties they've seen…"

"Our ghosts can't sense anything." Kay said, sharing a look with her own black and red-encased ghost. "You don't think the Fallen have found a way to hide their presence?"

"Like the stealth vandals?" Mal asked, shaking his head. "Unlikely."

"Beacon's not too far out now. Just focus, no speculation until we've had a proper look. Okay?" Major looked sideways at her companions. Kay snapped off a smart salute.

"Yes, ma'am!" She teased her fellow hunter.

"You can't see it," Major told her, tapping a gloved finger against the reflective visor of her helmet, "but I'm rolling my eyes at you."

"You don't have any eyes." Kay muttered, stalking ahead of them up a steep rise. The ground was hard and slippery with ice beneath her boots.

"I heard that!" Major said, following after her.

"I mean, she's kind of got a point." Mal said fairly. "Visual receptors aren't biological eyes."

"A technicality." Major responded, crouching with Kay as they crested the hill. Ahead of them lay an expanse of flat ground dotted with the wreckages of old planes and administrative buildings, interspersed with skeletal trees and clusters of gleaming spinmetal. In the distance loomed the Wall, the hulking structure that surrounded the last city and the remnants of humanity on Earth. Above it all hung the ever-present shining white orb of the Traveller. Less than a mile ahead of them lay the crashed jumpship they had come for. It remained largely still intact though the front had crumpled on impact with the ground. It lay half buried in a crater, mud scattered over the still burning hull and banked around the nose. A column of thick black smoke spiralled into the sky.

Kay unslung her sniper rifle from across her shoulders and lay on her front, tipping her head to peer through the scope to scan first the wreckage and then the area surrounding it. The few buildings nearby were too dark to see inside but the area appeared empty.

"Hope it was a Sunsinger," Mal said, crouching on Kay's other side, "a ghost would have its work cut out rezzing from that mess."

"Lovely." Kay commented drily. "I don't see anything." She lay down her sniper and looked sideways at Major.

"You think they're hiding in one of the buildings?" Mal suggested. "Maybe a Fallen patrol scared 'em off."

"One way to find out." Major said, hopping to her feet. She reached over her shoulder and unslung her auto rifle, hanging beside her sniper. Kay switched her own sniper for a scout rifle as she stood up. Mal advanced with a shotgun in his hands, resting nonchalantly upright against one shoulder and the hunters followed, senses on high alert.

Blackened and twisted shrapnel and clods of stone and earth thrown up by the ship's less than graceful landing made for uneven footing. Exposed electrics crackled and small fires still burned beneath missing hull panels.

Kay climbed the small mound surrounding the nose of the cockpit and peered needlessly inside as Major headed towards the nearest building. The metal doors were rusted open but did nothing to lighten the interior. The bright sunlight outside struggled to penetrate the thick gloom inside. Broken glass cracked and popped underfoot, the remains of the windows she assumed, blown in by the impact of the downed ship. A large desk was pushed against the far wall, stripped of any technology now courtesy of the Fallen. Beside it was a stairway leading downwards, too dark to see more than the top few steps.

"Uh…Guys?" Mal's voice came through their comm link.

"What is it?" Major asked, turning and heading back outside to see Mal crouching down close to the ship with his back to her. His attention was focussed on something half buried in the dirt in front of him. Kay jumped down from where she had been poking around in the ship's cockpit, took a step towards Mal and tensed.

"Oh crap…"

Mal stood and turned to Major, holding out what looked like a couple of scraps of white metal in his hands.

"What is that?" She asked. "Wait…It's not…?"

"Dead ghost." Kay said grimly. Major reached out and picked up the black central sphere from amongst the other shards of metal, turning it in her hands until she saw the 'eye' of the ghost. The lens was cracked.

"Dammit…" She muttered. Her own ghost suddenly rose up over her shoulder.

"Multiple life forms detected." It announced.

"It's a trap!" Mal growled. Kay heaved a sigh

"What a surprise…" She deadpanned.

"Fallen drop ship approaching." Mal's ghost added. Mal placed a hand over his heart.

"Just for us? How sweet!" He joked. Major gave his shoulder a playful punch as the familiar roar of drop ship engines broke the silence of the Cosmodrome. Fallen screeches sounded from the building Major had been inside, echoing up the stairway she assumed.

"Battle stations, folks!" Kay said, rushing towards a sizeable boulder and crouching behind it.

"We don't _have_ battle stations." Major told her, sliding into a ditch near the hunter. She lay on her front with her sniper rifle at the ready. Mal stood with one shoulder pressed to the outside wall of the nearby building, peering in through the small crack between the door and the frame.

"Uh…Mal?" Kay said slowly. "That's a terrible hiding place."

"I'm not hiding." Mal replied, cocking his shotgun and barrelling inside as Fallen swarmed up the stairs and into the small room. Arc energy crackled across the surface of his armour as he charged and threw himself into the middle of the crowd who shrieked in surprise as a shockwave of bright light obliterated them. Shotgun blasts finished off the rest of the group running up the stairs.

"That works…" Kay said.

"Walker!" Major cried, watching the approaching drop ship through her sniper scope. She saw the tank clutched beneath the ship, the tell-tale jerk of the cradle beginning to loosen. "Mal, get out of there!"

"Bit late for that, Major." He replied, peering around the doorframe at the hunters. He ducked out of sight as the cannons attached to the front of the ship began firing on his comrades. Clouds of dirt were thrown up into the air, forcing them to stay down as the tank fell to earth with a boom that echoed for miles. Kay felt the impact through her breast plate and risked looking out from behind her cover to see a group of fallen clambering out of the ship and jumping down after the tank. Mainly dregs, a couple of vandals and one towering captain wielding dual shock blades.

"We are so screwed…"

"Goddammit, Kay, why do you have to be such a pessimist all the time!?" Major grumbled. The tank raised itself up on six armour-plated legs.

"I don't know, I mean it's not like there's a Walker and we're outnumbered three to one." The drop ship engines increased in volume as the ship left the area, having dropped its deadly cargo.

"We've been through worse." Major replied. The Fallen began to spread out around the tank, screeching at each other.

"Yeah. But if I expect the worst I'll only ever be pleasantly surprised when we somehow survive." Kay said, taking a combustion grenade from her belt and pulling the pin. "Expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed." She released the striker lever, waited a beat, then chucked the grenade in a high arc towards the swarming Fallen. Seconds later the explosion tore through their ranks, igniting house colours and blasting open armour. Precious ether escaped through the gaps and Fallen collapsed dead. Major wasted no time in emptying a clip from her rifle into the heavy steel plates protecting the Walker's legs. Destroy one of those and the Walker would overload and expose its delicate core beneath the neck armour. The heavy canon rounded on her position.

"Hold fire, ladies, I got this." Mal said, suddenly dashing out into the open.

"Mal, what are you doing?!" Major cried.

"Um…Ghost? Stand by for a revive…" Kay said, popping out of cover to fire off several rounds at their enemies as they turned on Mal. The titan barrelled forwards, shotgun muzzle flashing as he fired shell after shell into the neck of the tank. Amour-piercing rounds hammered into the heavy metal, denting the previously smooth surface and weakening it significantly. The canon turned towards him as the titan sprinted for the tank, preparing to fire, but just as the canon began to charge a shot Mal threw himself upwards and rammed one shoulder into the wrecked armour that protected the Walker's core. There was an impossibly loud crack as the Guardian struck the tank followed almost immediately by a deafening explosion as sparking electronics ignited something within the mechanical beast and blasted the Walker apart from the inside. The concussive blast knocked the remaining Fallen down to the ground. Mal vanished amongst fire and coiling black smoke.

"Major?" Kay said, stepping out from behind cover as the Fallen struggled to recover. "Do the thing."

Major immediately leaped into the air, a shimmering bow of void energy forming in one hand as the other drew back a flickering purple arrow on an ethereal string. She timed it perfectly. No sooner had the captain hauled himself back onto his feet Major released the arrow. It struck him directly in the chest and lines of energy whipped outwards, using the captain as an anchor point as they latched onto multiple targets, tethering them to the spot.

Mal's ghost used the distraction to whizz out from the cover of the building it had been hiding inside, heading for the burning Walker.

White light flared beside Major and she looked sideways at Kay to see her fellow hunter levelling a handcanon at the enemy, wreathed in flame. One thunderous shot blasted a dreg backwards into his comrades (if a Fallen unit could even be called such a thing…) and his body exploded as he hit them, bringing them down too. The captain stumbled as he was hit by shrapnel, but the anchor from Major's nightstalker bow kept him pinned. Two more shots followed from Kay's gun, almost clearing the area. Just the captain remained.

The void anchor faded from existence. The captain took one step forward and roared at the exposed hunters, raising his shock blades as he prepared to charge them. And he froze.

"4th Horseman says hi!" Mal announced from behind, where the muzzle of his shotgun was pressed flush against the captain's back. The captain began to turn, and Mal pulled the trigger. The captain remained standing for a second, long enough to stagger forwards, and then collapsed in front of the newly resurrected titan, who straightened up and rested his gun on his shoulder, tapping two fingers of his free hand against his helmet in a salute as he noted the hunters watching him quietly.

"Nice of you to join us." Kay said.

"Hey, I did most of the work!" Mal replied.

"And died." Major said. "This is why Zavala won't let you head missions."

"Naw, he's just intimidated by my prowess in the field and my wily charm." Mal made his way over. Kay snorted and shook her head as though in disbelief.

"Guess we should get back to the tower and report." She sighed.

"Guess so." Major said. Mal slung his gun over his shoulder and threw his arms around the hunters, walking them back the way they had come.

"Mission accomplished."


	2. Breaking down the walls

**A/N: Again, this isn't meant to accurately reflect Destiny lore and is just a bit of fun for me and my fireteam. Changes** _ **have**_ **been made.**

 **It's turned into a dumping ground for random writings and is now technically a collab with Major de Speed (go check her out** **) for our clan to enjoy.**

 **Set waaaaay before the fic that opens this thing. Enjoy!**

* * *

Five guardians milled aimlessly around the Vanguard war table chatting amongst themselves as they waited. And waited. And-

"Cayde, for real," Kay pushed through the group to stand in front of her Vanguard leader, "I have someone else we can bring in for this. I literally saw him on my way up here."

"No, no, no." Cayde's reasonable tone was infuriating for someone as impatient as his protégé. "I have someone in mind. I want to see how well she works in a team." Kay stared at him.

"You want to see how well she works in a team." She repeated incredulously.

"Yes."

"By sending her into the Vault of Glass with a team she's never worked with before."

"Ah, but she _has_ worked with you before!" Cayde said gleefully. Kay felt her heart drop.

"Oh."

"Here she is!"

"Oh no."

"Major!"

Kay turned her head to watch Major striding the length of the Hall of Gaurdians. She shifted her feet ever so slightly, trying to inch her way behind the bulky figure of Ajax, the exo titan. He glanced down at her, expression hidden behind his helmet.

"Um. What are you doing?" He asked.

"Shhh!" Kay snapped. "That's the exo Mal tried to shoot the other day." She hissed. "You know, when the vex crashed the crucible? And we were trying to work together and she decided that would be a great time to try and win the damn match?"

"Oh…" Ajax said slowly. " _Try that again and I will end you_?" He adopted a gruff tone for the impression. "That one?"

"Yes!"

"Hah! Good luck." He snorted and sidestepped his friend, leaving her in plain sight of the angry exo hunter. He clapped the human on the shoulder and gestured to her. "This is Kay, our fireteam leader," he announced.

"I hate you," Kay muttered as Major's eyes locked onto hers, burning angrily. The exo stopped several paces directly in front of her.

"Just can't shake you," Major growled.

"Okay, so I'm sensing some tension," Cayde said, throwing his arms around Major and Kay and looking between them both. "But I'm sure you'll do great. Good luck out there, guardians. You'll need it."

* * *

A glowing white spire had formed, built up out of layers of intersecting lines of energy, and fired a single beam of light from its crest towards the massive coppery plates that formed the doorway into the Vault of Glass. The ground rumbled beneath their feet as unseen gears turned inside the cliffs of Venus and the smaller ring of metal sheets fanned upwards, revealing darkness behind them.

The way was open.

Kay sensed the rest of her fireteam spreading out behind herself, watching the now-still entrance to the vex domain in awe.

"Ready?" She asked, glancing sideways to find Major stood right next to her. The exo hunter scowled at her, glowing eyes cold behind the tinted faceplate of her helmet, and wordlessly thumbed the safety off her hand canon. Kay faltered awkwardly, hoping Major was above such petty things as revenge. "All righty, then!"

The doorway lead them into a warren of darkened tunnels and concealed abysses, culminating in a set of platforms and pillars that took them deeper and deeper inside the vault until at last they found themselves in some wide open room.

Small platforms hovered above a chasm, the bottom of which was obscured by thick swirling mist, and bordered a wider platform that jutted from the far wall and was dotted with pillars and stairways and structures made of concrete and metal that afforded both helpful cover and easy ambushing spots.

Three small pillars of brilliant white light rose up from the middle, left, and right of the platform.

"Are those-"

"Vex confluxes," Kay finished for Ajax, helmet shifting slowly from left to right as she scanned the empty ground far below them.

"What are we waiting for?" Major demanded, standing at the very edge of the platform they stood on and looking down.

"Something doesn't feel right," Kay said and Major glanced back at her.

"I feel it too," said Erebus, one of the warlocks. Beside him, Frey, the other warlock, nodded his head in agreement.

"Well, you guys can stay 'feeling it' up here," Major said, turning and jumping from the ledge, "I'm checking it out."

Kay heaved a world-weary sigh and leaped after her. She was followed shortly after by the rest of the fireteam, pausing a few seconds each to give those that jumped ahead of them chance to land and move aside before a companion could crash into them.

They dropped down around the central conflux and barely had time to regain balance before the mechanised screech of an alerted vex echoed around the chamber.

"Frey and Major go left, titans central, Erebus with me," Kay ordered immediately, already sprinting to cover the right side of the room. A glance to the side almost pulled her up short.

"Major, what are you-"

"I wanna go right," Major announced, running with her.

"Oh for-! Erebus take-"

"On it."

"Uh, that is one big hydra…" Ajax's voice came to them via the comms in their helmets now that they were too far away to hear each other speak.

Kay leaped up the stairs onto the right side platform and headed wide to give herself a view of the back of the room and blinked in surprise as a vex hydra now occupied the space that had before been empty.

"Understatement, Ajax…" she replied softly.

"It's fully shielded," Erebus called out from his position across the room.

"Additional hostiles inbound," Kay's ghost informed her.

"We'll figure it out. Deal with the reinforcements first." She slapped a fresh mag into her scout rifle and whirled to fire on the first fanatics as they came sprinting from the tunnel behind her and Major.

* * *

The last vex clattered lifelessly to the ground amongst its fallen comrades, its core shattered by a powerful titan punch. Silence filled the chamber like a physical presence. The gigantic hydra-the Templar-had disappeared. Teleported away to some unknown place in space and time.

"Was that it…?" Frey asked, voice tinny through the comms channel.

"Uh…Guess so?" Kay replied.

"Ooh, what's that?" Major asked. Kay whipped round to see her fellow hunter hopping down into the pit below their platform. "One of them dropped a shield or something."

"Don't touch that." No sooner had Kay spoken than the Templar announced its presence with a loud screech, reappearing in the back of the room once more. "She touched it…Everyone group up on my position!" She raced across the platform and hid behind the rocky structure in the centre where they would be protected from the hydra's explosive weapons fire. The two warlocks and two titans pressed their shoulders to the rock beside her. Major skidded around the corner holding a shield made of metal struts and what appeared to be a ghost hammered flat.

"If we make it through this," Kay told her angrily, "I'll kill you myself."

"Seems counter-productive," Major shot back.

"She's got a point," Ajax said.

Kay inhaled sharply through her nose, let it out slowly through her mouth.

"Fuck you all."

"Rude," Ajax commented as the warlocks sniggered.

Vex swarmed through the tunnel behind them. The guardians spread out across the platform, keeping the pillars between themselves and the Templar as they opened fire on the approaching vex reinforcements.

"Hey, guys?" Major called out suddenly. "I don't think this is just a shield…" She looked down at the glowing object in her hands as it vibrated and shone bright, humming faintly with a barely contained power.

"Then what is it?" Ajax grunted, beating a hobgoblin to death with his shotgun as he had no time to reload.

"A weapon…?" Major said uncertainly, turning suddenly towards the Templar and aiming the shield at him. As though it had been waiting for the movement, a ball of energy fired from the centre of the shield and smashed straight into the Templar. Its shields shattered, leaving it unprotected. The five other guardians stood gaping in silence. "Well, don't just stand there!" Major snapped.

"Right!" Kay said, first to regain her senses. She summoned the Light within herself, channelling it into solar energy that formed a flaming hand canon in her palm. She levelled it at the vulnerable hydra and squeezed the trigger, sending a single fiery bullet streaking across the room to slam into its weak spot. The hydra shuddered under the impact as, energy spent, the hand canon disintegrated into embers and Kay switched to a sniper rifle.

Behind her the titans held off the vex in the tunnels as the warlocks dropped to their knees, snipers out and trained on the Templar.

They managed just a few shots before the hydra was able to bring its shields back up and teleport to a new location within the room.

"Keep that up!" Kay ordered while dodging the focussed fire from several harpies. Ajax stuck one with a grenade that took out two and allowed Kay to toss a throwing knife into the eye of the third during the distraction.

"The shield has to charge or something," Major shrugged.

"Let us know when you're ready," Kay said, jerking her knife free of the harpy. She whirled to face a hobgoblin and squeezed off several rounds from her scout rifle into its weak spot. As it went down she felt a freight train smash into her ribs that sent her crashing to the ground on her back. The force sent her rolling over backwards once and then she felt nothing but emptiness beneath her shoulders as she fell from the platform into open space. Kay dropped her gun and reached wildly for the ledge as she fell, saw the minotaur that had hit her looming above her on the platform where the battle still raged. Her heart leaped into her throat as one heavy mechanical foot inched closer to her fingers. Her feet kicked wildly against air, desperately seeking purchase. She suspected a fall into the darkness below would be a final death that her Ghost couldn't revive her from.

And then the minotaur was launched from the platform as Major hit it from behind with her shield. Kay twisted her head to watch as the vex was swallowed by the mist beneath her, then looked back up at her saviour.

"Hold on, Kay!" She called, tossing the shield carelessly behind her. It was scooped up by Erebus.

"No kidding!" Kay replied, voice high with panic. Major grabbed her by the forearms and strained against the weight of body and armour and inch by inch Kay felt herself being pulled back up. She dug her fingers into cracked stonework, trying to help as Major now grabbed the back of the armour protecting her shoulders and hauled. Kay felt the leather straps tighten against her ribs, creaking dangerously as they were used to pull her up to safety. Finally, her legs were on the platform. She rolled onto her back and lay gasping up at the ceiling, fighting off the effects of adrenaline.

Major rapped playful knuckles against the top of the human's helmet.

"You're welcome!" She announced before darting off back into the fray.

"Firing!" Erebus called out and the shield gave out another blast of energy. Kay scrambled to her feet, reached for her scout but found only air. The abyss had claimed her weapon. She swore and faced the Templar with her sniper instead.

The hydra suddenly shone with a blinding white light from within. Someone had driven a bullet home into the delicate mechanics inside the armour plating.

"Down!" Kay ordered and everyone scrambled for cover as, seconds later, a deafening explosion rent the air. Flaming shrapnel was blasted in every direction. The dead machinery fell to the ground with a boom that shook the entire room.

Silence.

Then, "Clear," Erebus shouted.

Ajax let out a low whistle as he climbed to his feet.

"That was…Fun," he announced.

"I lost my scout," Kay grumbled, rising and kicking at a twisted lump of metal at her feet.

"We'll get you another," Frey patted her shoulder.

* * *

They made their way deeper into the Vault of Glass, further in, further down. Through tunnels and shafts carved from rough rock, or built from smooth stone and metal interspersed with ethereal white and blue light. They found a maze of gorgons, suped-up harpies, that they successfully navigated, and ran through more corridors to find a series of disappearing and reappearing platforms, solid structures stuck in a time loop.

"This place is weird," Ajax commented as they ran along another corridor, this one dark and shadowy, towards a carved triangular door at the end.

"Anything vex is weird," Erebus replied. The group paused before the doorway.

"Now what?" Major asked.

A glowing blue glyph formed in the centre of the door and the panels slid open to reveal an open chamber.

"Now we find Atheon and kill him," Kay answered, striding forwards. "Enemies!" She threw herself behind a pillar as vex sighted on them.

"Yes, Kay," Major said, pressing her shoulders to the stone beside Kay, "what did you expect? A welcome party."

Kay glared at her. "Shut up and shoot them before I shoot you," she said, dropping to her knees and leaning out of cover to peer through the scope of her sniper rifle.

"You can't do that," Major replied smugly. "I saved your life so that would be rude."

Kay said nothing to that, refusing to admit the exo had a point.

"Sucks to be you," Major sniggered, sensing she had won the argument.

Kay darted towards a fallen pillar and heard Major following her standing tall where the human ran low.

"Grenade!" Kay shouted, seeing the purple energy bolt arcing through the air towards them both. She threw herself flat and covered her head with her hands. The grenade detonated in midair. She felt the blast of it ruffle her cloak, heard a yelp from Major and turned to see the exo hunter flying through the air, limbs pinwheeling as her trajectory sent her towards an open pit in the centre of the room several metres from their position.

"What is this I see before me but _karma_?" Kay smirked, dropping her gun to jump to her feet and grab the small grappling hook from her belt. She aimed and fired at Major and was rewarded by the thin cable looping itself around the hunter, the small metal hook at the end biting into armour to secure the cable in place. Kay allowed the cable to unwind from the spool linked to her belt, watching as Major disappeared from sight with a shout of dismay. And then the cable went taught. Kay had only seconds to register the folly of her plan before the sudden weight of Major jerked her forwards.

"Oh no…" She fell backwards, tugged forwards with incredible force from her belt and found herself dragged towards the ledge as Major's descent continued. "OhnoohnoohnoohnononoNO!" Her heels slammed into the raised lip that bordered the pit and she was hauled upright. She threw her shoulders backwards, somehow managing to stop herself from swinging forwards and joining major in the bottomless abyss. Major struck the rocky side with an 'oof!' one arm coiled around the cable and hanging on for dear life. She didn't trust the hook or her armour not to give.

"Clear!" Erebus called out. "Wait, where's Major?"

"Oh, you know," Kay hissed through grit teeth, struggling with the weight of an exo on the end of a great length of cable, "she's hanging around somewhere."

"I heard that!" Major snapped.

Ajax laughed as he saw Kay straining at the edge of the pit, cable in hand.

"Hey, look at that! Hunters _do_ have a little strength in them!" He called, sauntering over as the others began to pick their way through the ruins of enemy vex carcasses.

"Ajax, this is not the time-" Kay began.

"Guardian, hostile inbound," her Ghost informed them as the timegate across the room flared to life.

"But you're doing so well," Ajax said, peering down over the ledge to see where Major was.

"Ajax, humans are squishy!" Kay growled. "My spine is about to be pulled out through my stomach now GIVE ME A HAND DAMMIT!"

"All _right_ , sheesh."

She could almost hear him roll his eyes as he took hold of the cable. Erebus lent his weight to Kay, holding on around her waist and pulling her backwards as the others helped Ajax with the cable, pulling hand over hand to winch Major up.

Behind them the timegate flared brighter.

"Uh, guys…" Frey said nervously, watching the shimmering circle of light. "Maybe hurry up, something's coming through."

Major managed to twist herself round and get both feet braced against the wall, walking herself up towards her fireteam.

"Where's that titan strength, then?" She asked. She saw the titans exchange a look and suddenly she was practically running up the wall.

"Guys…" Frey called again. He didn't need to finish the sentence. The grating call of an angered vex echoed through the chamber.

Major practically flew up amongst the group. The second her feet hit solid ground Kay cut the ties linking her hook to herself and tossed it into the pit and as one the group scrambled to find cover.

Atheon had come to meet them.


	3. Life must have its mysteries

**A/N: I have a friend who, lately, has been doubting her worth which sucks big time. Or maybe she's always felt that way and only recently let on. In the words of Navi, hey listen! You do more than you realise.**

* * *

Humans, Major decided, were weird. Not that she knew all that much about them. But she had watched them from afar, seeing the myriad expressions play over their strangely soft faces. Seeing the damage fighting beyond the Wall did to their delicate frames. And, more recently, seeing the bizarre reaction of losing a match in Lord Shaxx's Crucible. She had witnessed a human hunter hurling her hand canon furiously over the platform edge into the abyss below the B zone capture point in the Shores of Time on Venus.

That same hunter now sat on the polished chrome railings surrounding the edge of the Tower plaza, her legs dangling into space as she stared moodily down at the city spreading out below them. She still wore her armour, without her helmet. Major could see the purple war paint on her face, pointless triple stripes across her cheeks and chin. If she was going to wear a helmet, why wear war paint? Another thing Major didn't understand.

They had been back for hours now. Major had fought alongside her fellow hunter during the Crucible match, had arrived back to the Tower with her. Kay had slipped away while the rest of their group made their way down to the Guardians' quarters several floors below the plaza. Major supposed she had been sat up here the whole time, which was strange. Humans often ate food after vigorous exercise, to recharge.

She stepped up behind Kay, leaned her hands on the railing beside the hunter and peered at her curiously. Kay glanced sideways at her in confusion, easily recognising the polished green metallic face and almost losing an eye to a too-close head spike. The exo still hadn't figured out personal boundaries…

"You're sad," Major stated, lights along her jaw flashing emerald as she spoke.

Kay sighed and looked down again, watching the dying sun flash mirror bright from windows and metal rooftops below.

"Yes," she muttered.

"Why?" Major asked. Kay had seemed distracted during their Crucible match, and had fought badly. That was at odds with the last match Major had taken part in with the hunter, in which they were on opposing sides. Following that, their mission into the Vault of Glass had shown the human to be a quick thinker, adaptable, handy with her weapons and her fists. Kay hadn't been right for a long time now. She needed a system reboot.

"My scout rifle," Kay answered without looking at the exo. "I lost it in the Vault last week." She swung her feet idly, watching sunlight gleam like fire off the scuffed steel toe caps of her boots. "It was my first rifle and I modded it to Hell, but…" She left the sentence hanging, having no more to say. "NL Shadow 701X. I got so used to it…I know I shouldn't have relied on just one gun but…It was reliable." She looked at Major miserably.

So that was why she threw the hand canon. She had been unable to find a replacement for her favourite gun.

"Come with me," Major told her, pushing off from the railing and taking a step back. Kay looked baffled.

"What?" She asked. Major motioned for her to follow. Kay cocked her head to one side, but swung her legs over the railing and hopped down to trail after the tall exo as she made her way across the plaza.

"Where are we going?" Kay asked as they headed inside and Major lead her towards a stairwell that zig-zagged its way through the Tower from top to bottom.

"My quarters," the exo replied without looking back.

"Um…" Kay raised an eyebrow.

"I have something to show you," Major elaborated, turning onto a landing and palming a glowing blue switch on the wall beside heavy metal door panels. They hissed open and the hunters made their way through into the long corridor on the other side. The doors whispered closed behind them automatically.

Similar doors lined the corridor on either side, small keypads on the walls beside them. Strip lights mounted into the ceiling bathed them in harsh white light, illuminating grey concrete walls and grey floor panels, gunmetal closed doors. The monotony of monochrome was broken up by the brightly coloured banners hanging from the walls at intervals showing the hunter, titan, and warlock symbols, and the Tower crest, on the woven fabric.

Major turned right without pausing, heading along the corridor towards her quarters. They passed door after door until Major stopped in front of her own, and Kay almost walked into the back of her. The exo didn't react, just swiped a finger over the keypad set into the wall and keyed in her code. Her door slid open and she stepped inside. Kay hesitated uncertainly outside a moment before following her in. Major switched on a desk lamp, revealing a small room crammed with shelves and drawers, a metal desk and a wardrobe. Electronics and datapads littered all available surfaces. Armour plates crowded the top of one set of drawers, and she recognized the armour Major had used during their Crucible match earlier that day. She felt a stab of shame at her poor performance and turned away, realising suddenly that something was missing.

"No bed?" She asked, looking at Major as she crossed the room to another set of drawers, stepping over coils of wire and circuitry. Major glanced back at the human.

"Why would I have a bed?" She asked.

"Right…" Kay tapped her fingers to one temple and shrugged. "Exos don't sleep."

"No," Major said, turning back to the metal drawers and pulling open the top one. The rollers scraped loudly. "Come here." She reached inside and shoved aside more electronics.

Kay stepped closer curiously, and the exo turned to face her with a black and white scout rifle held in her hands.

"What's this?" Kay asked.

"Hung Jury," Major replied, naming the rifle, and held it out to her with both hands. Kay raised her eyes to meet the luminous green eyes of the other hunter. As with all exos, she struggled to read Major's expression, but if she had to choose she would have picked earnest. "Arach Jalaal gave it to me as a reward for clearing out a hanger in the Cosmodrome. It's yours."

"What? No, I can't take that!" Kay protested, hands up, taking a step back.

"You can," Major said, reaching out and firmly grabbing one of Kay's hands. She placed the rifle grip in her palm and closed the hunter's fingers over it. "I use hand canons, anyway." Major folded her arms over her chest and watched the human intently.

Kay stared down at the gun she held. The weight felt perfect. She lifted it to her shoulder and looked through the scope. Signal MS5, very nice.

"Wow, thank you, but…" She looked up at the exo in confusion. "Why? Why do this for me?"

"Because you're my friend," Major said slowly. "I think." She hadn't had a friend in so long she had no idea how that felt any more. She had been a lone wolf ever since losing her last partner in crime and had intended to stay that way until Cayde partnered her with this scrappy human. And this human she didn't like to see upset and didn't want her to die, so, she supposed, that made them friends. "You're growing on me. Like moss."

Kay blinked at her.

"Um. Thanks."

"Are you happy now?" Major asked, studying the human carefully. She wasn't entirely sure of the cues, but smiling was usually one.

Kay looked down at the scout rifle in her hands and grinned broadly.

"Yeah," she said, "I think I am."


	4. Blood Lust

**A/N: Been sitting on this for a while, and, after a hiatus of several months where work and life conspired to stop me writing, I decided to post. Dragon Age and Mass Effect to follow soon!**

 **Had some weird issues trying to get this chapter up as well :S**

* * *

Every Guardian has that one story they can't tell. The one where they lost someone, a friend, a comrade, and it hurts too much to relive it for the sake of sating the curiosity of others. Because, though few and far between, there are things out there that can end a Guardian's Light. And sometimes it's the simplest thing.

Some of the caverns and tunnels beneath the Cosmodrome on Earth had been hollowed out by Fallen scavengers, and some were natural formations that had been claimed by those same Fallen. The tunnel network the three guardians were currently exploring had been dug through the rock beneath the surface of the Cosmodrome and linked to natural caves and tunnels, a sprawling network that seemed to go on for miles.

"They get everywhere," Finn grumbled in disgust, kicking at a loose rock and sending it skittering forwards, "like rats!"

"You've got to hand it to them, though," Erebus replied with admiration in his voice, turning slowly in a circle as they walked. The tunnel was high enough for the over-six-foot warlock to stand tall with room to spare, and wide enough for Finn to stand comfortably side-by-side with a fellow titan in their bulky armour. "They sure know how to tunnel."

"Yeah, great, we'll call them over to renovate the Tower," Kay deadpanned from her position ahead of her comrades. The illumination from their ghosts, twin beams of white, cast her shadow, sharp-edged and black, across the uneven ground in front of her.

Erebus shrugged. "I'm just saying, they did a good job."

"If I was desperate enough, I'd make a pretty good tunnel for myself too," Finn told him. "But, I'm starting to wonder if Cayde's intel is bad. There's no one here. Not even any traps." He glanced around himself, as though expecting a trap to materialize after his words.

"Cayde's intel is good," Kay replied without turning, "the Captain and his friends will be here."

"But, our ghosts can't detect them," Finn pointed out, unconvinced.

"So, they're cloaking," Kay said simply and shrugged.

"All of them?"

"Apparently."

Finn and Erebus exchanged a look, and almost walked clean into the hunter's back as she stopped dead in the tunnel that had come to a sudden end, opening out into a huge natural cavern littered with Fallen equipment. Heat lamps, cables, crates, consoles, all dead and dark. Kay's ghost floated forwards and up, strengthening the light it cast in an effort to illuminate the new area. Brilliant white reflected off thick stalactites clustered across the ceiling, reaching downwards for their stalagmite brethren that rose like fangs from the floor, some meeting in the middle. Rock shelves and caves threw shadows across the walls, and one side of the cavern disappeared into a dark abyss. And still, half the cavern was in shadow.

"Are we meant to search all this…?" Erebus asked quietly, staring across the cluttered vastness as the ghost returned to its hunter. Who knew such a space existed beneath the Cosmodrome?

Kay turned to face her comrades. Her hood was up, and a scarf hid the lower half of her helmet, but the mirrored visor gleamed from the shadows within.

"Spread out, but not too far," she ordered. "If we get jumped I want us close enough to group up, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Finn threw a smart salute and stood to attention. Kay's head twitched towards him in an unmistakable hidden glare.

"I mean it, don't lose line of sight," she insisted, and they pushed out into the cavern, splitting up to cover different areas.

Kay walked along the edge created by the abyss, the floor ending in a sheer drop that disappeared into darkness. Lights and consoles and other Fallen junk crowded the ledge, leaving her stepping over thick cables that lay in coils and bundles. She could hear the footsteps of her comrades echoing around her, moving slowly as they searched.

"There's something here," Kay muttered, eyes roving the craggy cave walls, the platforms and hiding places, the dead lights and metallic crates. She aimed her rifle over the cliff edge, peering into the abyss as her ghost shone its blinding white light over her shoulder, lighting up as much as it could.

"I definitely feel like I'm being watched," Erebus breathed apprehensively, looking back the way they had come. Kay paused to look up at him, finding the warlock standing still nearby, his gun held ready.

"Relax, guys," Finn told them confidently, his voice coming through the comms in their helmets as he had pushed on ahead, into the open central space of the cavern. The bright cone of light from his ghost danced over fallen rocks and dark, free-standing lights. He stepped up onto a shelf of rock that jutted out over the chasm and turned to face them.

Kay and Erebus glanced at each other, Kay's eye-roll hidden by her helmet.

"Typical titan," she said quietly, and Erebus snorted, agreeing wholeheartedly.

"I heard that!" Finn called out, and Kay looked over to him.

"That's what the comm's for, Finn," she replied playfully.

She saw it then. The flicker of camouflage as its user shifted position on one of the high ledges across the cavern. Before she could even react a brilliant flash of light zipped across the distance between Finn and the ledge and ripped through his ghost. White casing exploded in all directions, and Finn whipped round to stare at the spot previously occupied by his ghost.

 _Kill the Ghost, kill the Gaurdian._

"Finn, get down!" Kay cried, starting towards him as Fallen began to swarm over the rocks across the cavern, rushing out of dark caves and shadowy alcoves, closing the distance impossibly fast.

The line rifle fired again, and this time it was Finn's face plate that exploded. The force of it threw him sideways from the ledge, into the darkness of the abyss.

"No!" Kay felt a roar of anger rip its way from her throat as something popped deep inside her head and a red mist descended. Her heart hammered against her ribs, pulse throbbing in her throat as her breath began to come in ragged gasps and her limbs thrummed with adrenaline.

Blood lust. Somewhere she had heard the word before, never experienced it, now she knew.

The hunter threw herself onwards, meeting the Fallen as they surged forwards. Without breaking stride, she tossed aside her scout rifle and crouched to scoop up Finn's dropped AR with one hand, tugging her knife free of its sheath at her waist. Her eyes sought out the vandal that had killed her friend.

She squeezed the trigger of Finn's rifle, firing blindly into the ranks of the Fallen, lashing out with her knife as she continued forwards. She became a whirlwind of death, spinning out of harm's way as her enemy opened fire on her, reacting on pure instinct as she pushed through the ranks with one goal in mind.

Kill the sniper.

The captain they had come to eliminate was charging towards her with his shock blades drawn, his Fallen brethren parting to make way for him. Kay slammed her knife into the face of a dreg and channelled her Light to summon her flaming hand canon. She felt the familiar heat in her palm as she levelled the ethereal weapon and fired three solar charged bullets into the chest of the captain, pausing only to wrench her knife free of the dreg she had stabbed as the hand canon dissipated and the captain exploded into fiery embers. She stepped through the shower of sparks, dimly aware that Fallen were dropping around her from a gun other than her own. Erebus, taking down those that would stop her. He was firing from somewhere behind her, emptying clip after clip to keep her safe as she charged blindly onwards.

The sniper seemed to realise that Kay was coming directly for him. He had turned and was running from his perch, heading for a cave entrance to escape.

Kay leaped up onto a rock and used it to springboard onto the previously-occupied ledge as a muffled boom came from behind her, followed by a flash of purple, as Erebus hurled a nova bomb into the crowd of Fallen. The hairs along the back of her neck prickled in response to the void energy. Ignoring it, she flicked out her knife, watching with glee as the blade buried itself in the escaping vandal's thigh and brought him crashing down to the ground with an agonized screech. As he struggled to rise up again she squeezed the trigger of the AR in her grip, firing a burst of bullets into his other leg that shattered armour and bone. Still he tried to crawl away, dragging himself forwards with his hands, his legs trailing uselessly. With a viscous kick to his ribs she flipped him onto his back. He barely had the chance to bring his hands up to defend himself before Kay slammed the butt of the rifle down. She kicked his arms aside as he tried to block a second attack and smashed the heavy weapon down into his face again, feeling the impact shudder into her arms and revelling in it. Ether escaped in a hissing cloud as she rammed the gun down again and again. The vandal soon stopped struggling as metal and bone became one bloody mess against the rocks, and still the hunter swung the weapon down, not noticing when her roars of anger became choked sobs, or that the Fallen were no more. The cavern was silent save for the wet smack of metal on gore.

"Kay, it's done," Erebus said softly from behind her, but she continued to hammer the weapon into the vandal's corpse. "He's dead," the warlock caught her elbow, halting her mid swing.

Kay tossed the bloody weapon aside and stepped back, turning away to face the chasm.

Yes. He was dead.

"Kay?"

* * *

"Kay." Major made her way back over to her fellow hunter, who stood staring at some nondescript muddy slope in the Cosmodrome. " _Kay_ ," she said again, more forcefully this time, with a hint of irritation, and saw the human visibly snap out of it.

"Huh?" Kay asked, tearing her gaze away from what had once been a cave entrance and had long ago been reduced to a pile of rubble by a well-placed explosion. A second nova bomb from Erebus.

"What's wrong?" Major asked in what amounted to concern for an exo.

"Nothing," Kay replied, shrugging her shoulders and stepping passed her friend. "Nothing at all."


	5. A Blaze of Glory

**A/N: Once again, this isn't meant to accurately reflect Destiny lore, it's a bit of fun for me and my fireteam ;)**

* * *

The hangar was probably Kay's favourite place in the Tower. Sure, the air was thick with the smell of hot metal, oil, and exhaust fumes, and there was never a moments silence to be had what with the roaring engines of ships heading in and out or the mechanics hollaring at each other over the noise of their work, and there was the incessant foot traffic of Guardians and Tower staff coming and going running errands and the like, but she loved nothing better than to be tinkering with mechanical parts and so she put up with the chaos. And besides, one side of the hangar was open to the elements and offered a stunning panorama of the land for miles around. Being so high up, the desolation beyond the Wall didn't look so bad. It was an office with views to die for, so to speak.

"If you drop crumbs on my sparrow I'll beat you to death with a wrench."

Kay blinked as her friend's voice broke through her reverie and stared down at Major to find her friend glowering up at her with the full power of her glowing exo eyes from her position crouched beside the sparrow Kay sat astride. The vehicle had taken a beating on Major's last mission on Mars and she was busily patching it back up while Kay sat in the saddle firing up the systems when requested. She had been nibbling at the sandwich for a while now, but major had only just noticed. "Your sparrow looks like a cursed thrall drove it through the sun and you're worried about me getting crumbs on it?" she asked incredulously. Major said nothing as she went back to splicing wires inside the engine cavity.

Mal restlessly shifted position, leaning one shoulder against the pillar he stood beside, watching the two hunters bicker and work. "You should just replace the engine," he said helpfully. He had been saying a lot for the duration of Major's repair job, trying to backseat fix the machine despite not having the first clue about mechanics. "Holliday can probably sort you out with a new one." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder vaguely in the direction of the golden-haired shipwright. Kay followed the motion and noticed the hunter vanguard had entered the hangar and was engaged in a spirited conversation with Amanda Holliday.

"Okay, Mal, do you even know what I'm doing?" Major demanded, scowling at him over the twin fenders of her sparrow. The state of her beloved vehicle had her on edge; the slightest thing was aggravating her currently.

Mal scoffed and folded his arms over his broad chest. "Of course!"

"Oh really?" Major asked slowly, tipping her head and looking up at him in disbelief.

Mal paused awkwardly. Busted… "You're fixing the... Thing to do the... Other thing." He fidgeted under Major's cool stare.

Major said nothing for a moment, enjoying the titan's discomfort. Then, "pass me the hex keys." She held out a hand expectantly, palm up.

Mal pushed off from the pillar to look down at the tools scattered across the surface of Major's borrowed workbench for something that might identify itself as a hex key.

"I wonder what they're talking about?" Kay suddenly mused out loud.

"Who?" Major asked, bracing a hand against her sparrow as she pulled herself up onto her feet. Kay quickly grabbed the handles of the sparrow as the exo's motion rocked the vehicle on the duel struts holding it off the floor. "Get your sandwich off my dash!"

"Sheesh, sorry!" Kay muttered, stuffing the last of her snack into her mouth. "'Manda 'n' Cayde," she gestured across the hangar with one hand while speaking with her mouth full.

Major swiped a set of hex keys off the bench and pointedly held them up for Mal to see, then marched back around the sparrow and crouched back beside the open engine compartment.

"Why don't you go over and ask?" Mal taunted Kay, unfazed by Major's attitude.

Kay glared, wiping crumbs off her hands onto her trousers. "Because it's weird?"

"Don't speak with your mouth full," Mal said with a grin.

Kay swallowed her food. "Shut up."

"Okay, try that?" Major requested, climbing back to her feet.

Kay gripped worn-leather handles and thumbed the power switch on. Arc energy crackled between the fenders, jumping between the metal rods, and promptly sputtered out. The engine died with a piteous whine.

Major sighed wearily and dropped back into a crouch, eyeing up the inner workings of her sparrow once more. Kay leaned back in the saddle, gaze drifting once more towards Amanda and Cayde. They had been joined by a third person, a female human hunter with long bright red hair. "Who's that?"

"Why are you so nosey?" Mal demanded.

"I'm a hunter, we're insatiably curious," Kay replied without looking away.

Mal glanced over one shoulder, following her gaze across the hangar, drifting over the heads of robotic frames and humans crouching and standing beneath ships and other vehicles, sparks showering from welds, oil pooling around loose fixtures, until it landed on the new arrival. "Oh, that's Blaze."

"You know her?" Kay asked, watching as Blaze held out a datapad to Cayde and the pair drifted away from Amanda, who went back to fixing up an old ship engine.

"I know of her," Mal shrugged. "She single handedly wiped out Theta Squad in the crucible last week."

Kay gaped at him in shock. "No way?!"

Mal grinned, pleased to share information the hunter hadn't discovered yet. It wasn't often a titan got the drop on a hunter. "Aha! Why do you think they've been so salty lately?"

"How'd she do it?" Kay asked eagerly.

"Insane golden gun," Mal said, firing finger guns at Kay. "Honestly, ask Lord Shax if you can see the vids." He added enthusiastically. Then his expression turned sly. He leaned towards Kay conspiratorially. "You know, she hasn't been formally assigned to a fireteam yet."

"May have to have a chat with her," Kay grinned at him, catching on immediately.

"Well, you better hurry because everyone wants her now," Major spoke up from her position on the floor. "Try it."

Kay pressed the ignition once again, then yelped and promptly snapped her hand back in surprise as sparks spat at her from the controls.

"Humph," Major glowered at her sparrow, at a loss. She had tried everything now.

Kay pulled a face, leaning over the handlebars to look down at the exo crouched on the floor in front of her. "Major, I'm sorry," she began gently, "but... I think maybe it's time to look for a new sparrow..."

Major simply heaved a sigh and sat back heavily on her ankles in defeat, tossing her screwdriver onto the floor with a light clink of metal on concrete.

"What're you guys up to?"

Kay's head whipped round to find Amanda Holliday looking straight at her, a friendly smile on her face. She had approached them from behind, and circled now to stand in front of them.

Major looked up at her friend, watching as Kay opened her mouth to answer but no words came out. Amanda tipped her head curiously, waited a beat for an answer, then decided she wasn't getting one from the weird human hunter and glanced down at Major instead. "She has a sore throat," Major explained without missing a beat. "Lost her voice. You humans are so delicate..."

"Ah." Amanda looked back to Kay, who smiled awkwardly, tapped her throat with one finger and shrugged her shoulders in a 'what can you do' motion. "That's too bad," Amanda said sympathetically, then reached forward to pat one of the scuffed fenders of the sparrow. "This is your sparrow, right?" She asked major.

"Yip," Major muttered, casting her gaze over the sparrow sadly.

"What happened?" She arched one eyebrow. The metal casing was dented and blackened in places and the fenders had clearly only recently been bent out of shape.

"Long story," Major sighed, leaning back on her hands and staring morosely at her trusty vehicle.

"She drove it into a wall," Mal helpfully supplied.

"I did _not_ drive it into a wall!" Major said sharply.

Mal smirked. "Yes, you did."

"No, I-!" Major stopped herself, huffed out a short breath in irritation, and looked up at Amanda, climbing to her feet. "There were Cabal, and a wall _may_ ," she shot Mal a dark look, "or may not have been involved. Problem is, I think it's damaged beyond repair. I can't get it powered up no matter what I do. I can't find the problem."

Amanda glanced over the sparrow with a practiced eye, looking thoughtful. "Did you try switching out the arc capacitors? They usually short out when the engine overloads. It's hard to tell so people always overlook it, but, I mean, it looks pretty banged up anyway, so..."

"Of course!" Major cried, lunging for the toolbox, friends and hanger quartermaster alike forgotten as she solved the issue keeping her sparrow powered down. Amanda chuckled and thumb-hooked her belt, nodded her head at the trio.

"You're welcome, Guardian. Bye," she said, and sauntered across the hanger and up the stairs towards the tower plaza.  
Kay mutely waved a hand after her.

"You're unbelievable," Major said as soon as Amanda was out of earshot.

Kay blinked and looked down at the exo, wondering what she was supposed to have done now. "Eh?"

"I literally watched you sass a Fallen baroness _to her face_ the other day, and yet you can't even say a word to Holliday?" Major paused in her work to shoot her friend an incredulous look.

Mal snorted in amusement. "It's pathetic," he agreed.

Kay squirmed in the saddle and scowled at them both. "She's intimidating..." she insisted sulkily.

Mal and major exchanged a sceptical look.

"Holliday is about as intimidating as a moth," Mal told the hunter.

"Both of you shut up," Kay grumbled.

Mal chuckled to himself and turned to the workbench to fiddle with the tools and scrap metal that filled its surface. He was quiet a moment, but then asked, "are they flirting?"

"Now who's being nosey?" Kay asked, looking up and craning her neck to find who Mal was looking at. He was staring across the hangar, watching the far side where Blaze and Cayde still stood talking to each other.

Mal snorted in response. "You two must be rubbing off on me."

"Shut up!" Kay pouted at him, resenting being called nosey, but then her eyes widened as she saw Blaze laugh and touch a hand to Cayde's forearm. "Woah, I think they _are_ flirting!" Kay whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" Major asked, fiddling still with the inner workings of her sparrow. "They're across the hangar, they can't hear you."

Kay gasped and looked at Mal. "Do you think they're dating?"

Mal tipped his head to one side, studying the hunter and her vanguard. "Maybe?"

"Don't be stupid, it's against the rules," Major interrupted from the floor.

Mal looked down at his exo friend, then up at Kay who had raised one eyebrow at Major's comment. "I mean... Cayde isn't exactly known for following rules..." He pointed out.

Kay grinned at them both. "It's so romantic!" Major and Mal stared at her. "What? It is!"

Mal glanced back towards Cayde and Blaze. "Oh, hey, she's leaving, quick!" He raised his voice, "Hey, Blaze! Over here!" He waved both arms above his head to get her attention as Blaze turned to leave.

"Mal!" Kay hissed in dismay, but Blaze was already heading their way. "What is it with titans and-"

"Hi." Blaze interrupted with a politely curious smile, looking between Mal and Kay, then down at Major who merely nodded and then went back to her sparrow engine.

Mal stood tall and clasped his hands behind his back, trying to look both friendly and imposing at the same time for sake of appearances. Kay raised one eyebrow at him and shook her head almost imperceptibly. "Kay has something to ask you."

Blaze looked expectantly at the shorter human. Kay froze. Usually she would have prepared at least _something_ to say, some sort of spiel to big up her team. But, of course, thanks to a titan leaping in head first as always, all she could do was blurt out, "wanna join fireteam Delta Bravo?" She hoped their reputation would be enough. They were, after all, the team that had ended both Atheon and Crota.

Blaze looked surprised, having clearly not expected the offer. She tapped her palm against the thin edge of the datapad she still held, searching for something to say. "I have some stuff I need to take care of," she said after a moment. "So… I'll get back to you." She smiled and walked passed them, heading towards the stairs nearby.

"Well," Kay muttered, watching her go. "That was vague…"

"What're you talking about?" Mal asked loudly, sounding hyped. "That was such a yes!"

"Shut up, she can hear you!" Kay hissed at him, leaning out of the sparrow saddle to slap his arm. Mal slapped her arm back and pointed.

Kay twisted round to see Blaze had turned back to face them, walking backwards as she gave a sloped smile and said simply, "it was a yes."

Kay sat up straight astride the sparrow and tapped two fingers to her temple in a playful salute as Blaze faced front again and disappeared into the corridor leading to the Tower plaza.

"Glad we've got that sorted," Major said drily. She stood up in front of her sparrow, wiping oil from her hands onto a rag. "Try it?"

She watched almost nervously as Kay cracked her knuckles and reached for the sparrow controls, wrapping her fingers around the handles and resting her boots on the footpegs. She lifted her eyes to meet Major's and offered a crooked smile, seemingly just as nervous as her friend. They both new this was the final test. If the sparrow failed again it would need to be scrapped.

She thumbed the ignition on. Arc energy immediately jumped the length of the fenders and the engine rumbled to life and remained at a low purr.

Kay laughed and clapped her hands. "Nice one!" She said, holding up one palm to Major.

Major grinned and happily slapped it, eyes on the humming sparrow.


End file.
